Permanent Campaigning in Canada ed. by Alex Marland, Thierry Giasson, and Anna Lennox Esselment (review)

Through this collection, Alex Marland, Thierry Giasson, and Anna Lennox Esselment aim to provide a more theoretically grounded account of 'permanent campaigning' in Canada. As noted in the introduction, the existing literature on this topic reflects a series of disparate thoughts about political behaviour, political communication, and public administration–thoughts that the editors and contributors successfully unite under a common set of theoretical assumptions and methodological commitments. At a general level, permanent campaigning can be defined as the efforts of political parties to identify and mobilise their support bases between elections. The particular understanding used in this collection builds on the work of Peter Aucoin. Specifically, it extends his work on the political and partisan activities of government under the theory of New Political Governance to include opposition parties and civil society groups. It does this by focusing on five key strategic objectives shared by these actors: communications control, resource exploitation, redefinition of norms, database management, and coalition building. This theoretical 'framework' is then applied to case studies drawn from the Harper years of government, exploring the effects of a permanent campaigning mindset on the nature of the relationship between political parties and citizens, and that between political parties and other political institutions, such as Parliament, rival parties, the traditional media, and the public service.

A number of critical insights are raised in this collection, including: (1) contrary to conventional wisdom, the regulated aspects of the formal election period may actually offer more benefits to a government on the defensive than the normal advantages offered by incumbency outside this period; and (2) digital means of communication and advanced voter-profiling techniques carry the potential for allowing more meaningful dialogue between political parties and citizens, but they also risk alienating and marginalising those voters who do not respond to party prompts. The latter point reflects the double-edged nature of importing modern marketing and communication practices into competitive party politics: these practices can be used to unite citizens or divide them depending on the partisan interests of the user.

The few shortcomings of this collection can be largely attributed to the novelty of its subject matter and the accompanying lack of robust case studies to consider. At its core, this is really a collection about permanent campaigning during the Harper years of government. The 2019 federal election provides an opportunity to revisit, update, and revise some of the arguments presented in the text. It also provides an opportunity to resolve the apparent tension that exists between the more optimistic reading of the early Justin Trudeau years of government found in the introduction and the more critical points of continuity between Harper and Justin Trudeau highlighted in the final chapter. A revised text, taking into the account the experiences of the 42nd Parliament and the 2019 federal election campaign, would only further enhance the value of this collection.